
          I do not wonder that Prof. [Jacob Whitman] Bailey & yourself have failed to find spores in the Tuckahoe-- Pachyma Cocos, Fries [now Wolfiporia extensa]. It has none-- is not an autonomous
 plant-- Since I came to this region, where it aboundsm I have been making investigations into its history with reference to a paper upon it for [Benjamin] Silliman.
 All that now remains obscure upon it is its first cause, or what gives it a start.
 I have satisfactorily ascertained that [adde with caret: it] originates from vegetable substances.
 If it is your intention to publish anything about it, I will give you such
 materials as I have gathered. The analysis of substances I obtained from Prof.
 [William Henry] Ellett last year.  This curious production extends as far south as Texas. I have
 specimens larger than my head from this neighborhood. I do not think that any
 Mycologists regard it as a Fungus, though it has as much title to be considered
 as most of the Sclerotia, among which [Louis David von] Schweinitz originally placed it.
 I wish you would inform me where [Henri] Braconnot originally obtained the Pectin. 


 [Elias Magnus] Fries refers Lycoperdon solidum, Gron.: to the Pachyma:- but L. solidum, Linn.
 to a species of Elaphormyces.


 You express some regret that I have turned my attention to this department.
 But what else could I do? I had worked up all the Phanerogams in my
 reach, & nothing was left to gratify my botanical ardor unless I took up
 Cryptogams. I needed some field of operation, which I could enter
 & work upon whenever I was in the humor for labor, & with the prospect
 of an occasional harvert of something new to me. That field I
 have entered, & if I had ten lives I could hardly get through it. Something
 new is arising at every turn, nor need I move a half mile from
 my door for material. Nearly all my gatherings here are within that
 distance. Besides, it is high time that this department of our Flora
 be recieving [sic] some attention from a native American. I can at least
 make a beginning-- The end is a long way off.


 I was not before aware that you had ever published anything upon the Tuckahoe.
 Where can I find the papers, as I should like, if I prepare a paper, to see
 what you have said upon the matter? 
        